Conformable disposable garment

ABSTRACT

A DISPOSABLE GARMENT SUCH AS AN OPERATING ROOM GOWN IS MADE OF FLEXIBLE INELASTIC NONWOVEN MATERIAL, COMPOSED OF GENERALLY PLANAR SECTIONS JOINED BY SEAMS, SELECTED PORTIONS OF THE MATERIAL BEING MICROPLEATED BY MECHANICAL COMPRESSION OF THE MATERIAL TO FORM A MULTIPLICITY OF RANDOM DISCONTINUOUS MICROPLEATS EXTENDING TRANSVERSELY TO THE DIRECTION OF THE COMPRESSION TO COMPACT THE MATERIAL IN SAID DIRECTION TO FORM A CONFORMABLE PORTION IRREVERSIBLY SIZE-ADJUSTABLE TO A LARGER SIZE ALONG SAID DIRECTION, WHEREBY THE GARMENT IS ADAPTED TO CONFORM TO A WEARER&#39;&#39;S FORM AND SIZE.

March 20, 1973 D. PATIENCE 3,720,957

CONFORMABLE DISPOSABLE GARMENT Filed Feb. 14. 1972 FIG I l l l 23 Q l I 23 l l l l I United States Patent 3,720,957 CONFORMAELE DISPOSABLE GARMENT Donald Patience, Barrington, 111., assignor to The Kendall Company, Boston, Mass. Filed Feb. 14, 1972, Ser. No. 225,847 Int. Cl. A41b 9/00; A61b 19/06 US. Cl. 2-114 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to disposable garments. In particular, it relates to disposable garments having improved fit and conforming to the wearers size and form.

All garments, both reusable and disposable, are basically constructed of sections of flat, generally two-dimensional material, cut and joined together at seams to approximate the form of the wearer, which is three-dimensional and includes regions of varying curvature, convex or concave, with almost no plane areas. In reusable garments, the resulting problems of fit are resolved by providing a number of seamed structures including, for example, darts, in which portions of material are seamed together to remove or direct fullness of the material; gussets, in which extra material is let in to the structure; and seams that join together material edge portions of different lengths or different curvatures. Such structures are of varying efficiency in achieving fit, but the use of any of them requires time to be expended in the construction of the garment, and the better the fit, in general, the more expensive the garment. Alternatively or additionally, garments may be made of elastic or resilient materials, such as knit fabrics, which give to conform to the wearers form. Such fabrics, however, are expensive and not suitable for use in disposable garments.

Disposable garments are desirably inexpensive, since they are intended to be used only once. To make their construction as inexpensive as possible, they are preferably constructed of as few pieces as possible in as few steps as possible. This requires a minimum of seaming or other construction, and requires such seams to be simple, involving, desirably, the joining of straight edge portions of identical length, or curved portions of similar curvature.

In addition, the fabric in reusable garments, whether woven or knitted, may be comparatively expensive and therefore generally has good conformability and hand, whereas disposable garments must be made of less expensive materials, such as non-woven materials of textile or paper fibres. Such non-Wovens are generally characterized by relatively poor conformability and hand.

As a result, an inexpensive disposable garment usually provides a minimum of conformity to the non-planar form of the wearer, and unnecessary quantities of material, located for example at the shoulder or under the arm, balloon out or bunch up and create inconvenience and discomfort for the wearer.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an inexpensive, disposable garment that may be constructed of a minimum number of pieces joined by a minimum num- 3,720,957 Patented Mar. 26, 1973 ber of seams, that provides superior conformity to the wearers form.

A further problem resulting from the use of disposable garments is the provision of a variety of sizes for a range of possible wearers. The design, cut and construction of the same garment in different sizes adds to the expense of manufacture, and maintaining a supply of garments over a range of possible sizes is expensive and inefficient, requiring storage space and complicated inventory procedures.

It is therefore a further object of this invention to provide an inexpensive, disposable garment that will comfortably fit persons over a range of sizes.

The invention features a disposable garment of flexible inelastic nonwoven material, composed of generally planar sections joined by seams, selected portions of the material being micropleated by mechanical compression of the material to form a multiplicity of random discontinuous micropleats extending transversely to the direction of the compression to compact the material in said direction to form a conformable portion irreversibly size-adjustable to a larger size along said direction, whereby the garment is adapted to conform to a wearers form and size.

In peferred embodiments, the garment is a gown, for example for use in an operating room, and the planar sections include a top section including an upper body portion, and sleeve portions extending therefrom and including wrist edge portions, and a lower section including front and back lower body portions and joined to the upper body portion by aseam. The gown has at least one conformable portion including a part of the upper body portion, the lower section and a sleeve portion, and the micropleats extend generally transversely to the direction of the sleeve portion extension; the compacting initially reduces the distance between the wrist edge portions by at least about 5% and preferably about 15% of the uncompacted distance.

The gown may also have a conformable portion adjacent each wrist edge portion, the micropleats extending transversely to the wrist edge portion, and the compacting reduces the circumference of the wrist edge portion by at least about 5% and preferably about 15% of the uncompacted circumference.

Other objects, features and advantages will appear from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, taken together with the attached drawings thereof in which:

FIGS. 1 and 2 show lower and upper planar sections, respectively, of which the gown is constructed;

FIG. 3 shows a front view of the constructed gown with conformable portions;

FIG. 4 shows an alternative embodiment of a constructed gown with conformable portions;

FIG. 5 is a back view of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 6 is a cross section through a conformable portion on an enlarged scale.

Various nonwoven materials are suitable for use in constructing this garment. For example, materials such as Dextex of C. H. Dexter Co., and Confi1 of International Paper Co., both long fiber papers, are both suitable. Scrim reinforced laminates such as Kimberly- Clark Corporations Kaycel, tissue fiber laminates such as Kimlon also made by Kimberly-Clark, drylaid Webril of The Kendall Company, and bonded continuous filament fabrics such as Du Ponts spun bonded polyolefins Tyvek and -Typar may be used. Spun-bonded fabrics can be micropleated to a greater degree than can carded or wet-lay fabrics and therefore permit a greater degree of conformability to be achieved;

Referring now to the drawings, an operating room gown 10 embodying the invention is constructed out of a lower planar section 12 and an upper planar section 14. Lower section 12 includes a front lower body portion 16 and two back lower body portions 18, with common bottom edge 20, common upper edge 22, and back margins 23. Upper section 14 includes an upper body portion 24, with front edge 26, and is cut along opening 28 to neck portion 30. Opening 28 divides the back edge into portions 29 and 31. Sleeve portions 32 and 3-3 ending in wrist edge portions 34 and 35 extend away from upper body portion 24. Sleeve portion 32 has underarm edges 38 and 40, and sleeve portion 33 has underarm edges 42 and 44.

To construct the gown, underarm edges 38 and 40 are seamed together, as by adhesive, and edges 42 and 44 are similarly seamed. Upper body portions front edge 26 is then seamed to front lower body portion 16 at edge 22, while back edges 29 and 31 are seamed to back lower body portions 18 at edge 22, creating a continuous straight seam 46 around the circumference of the gown and running under the sleeves.

After the garment has been seamed, selected areas are compacted by micropleating. A suitable process is that known as Micrexing, using a system manufactured by the Bird Machine Co. The material is mechanically compressed to form a multiplicity of random discontinuous pleats extending transversely to the direction of compression, to compact the material in that direction, thereby forming a conformable portion that is irreversibly size-adjustable to a larger size along that direction; that is, the compacted portion is extensible under tension but is inelastic and does not return to its original compacted dimension after tension is released.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, the compacted portion 50 includes upper body portion 24, portions of sleeves 32 and 33 adjacent portion 24, and the upper portion of section 12; thus seam 46 is wholly within compacted portion 50.

The direction of compacting is such that the micropleats 52 extend transversely to the direction of sleeve extension; thus the garment is size-adjustable in breadth but not in length, in that the shoulder and chest parts may be broadened to conform to the wearers size. The broadening does not occur uniformly throughout the compacted region, however, but is limited to the portions of material that are under tension. Areas of extra material which, if uncompacted, would tend to bunch up or balloon out, remain compacted, and thus the garment additionally conforms to the wearers shape.

The compacting in portion 50 should reduce the span of gown from wrist 34 to wrist 35 by at least 5% to produce a conformable, functional garment. In preferred embodiments, made of spun-bonded fabrics such as Tyvek, a reduction of size by about produces a more desirable degree of conformability and the garment will better fit a range of persons of varying sizes. When the reduction of size is about 12%, there are about 25 pleats per inch (FIG. 6); the initial fabric thickness is increased by about a factor of two, from .007 inch to .015 inch.

In preferred embodiments, the portion of the sleeve 33 adjacent wrist edge portion 35 is also compacted to create a conformable portion 54. The micropleats extend transversely to wrist edge portion 35, and thus reduce the circumference of the sleeve at the wrist by at least 5%, and preferably by about 15%, to provide a well-fitting wrist. A similar compacted portion 56 is provided in sleeve 32.

The conformable portions of the garment may be differently located in different designs of gown to achieve the same effect. An alternative embodiment is shown in FIG. 4. Gown 60 is cut in three rather than two pieces, each sleeve 62 being a separate piece joined to body portion 64 by seam 66. Body portion 64 is folded at side '67. Conformable portion 68 includes a portion of seam 66, and has micropleats oriented generally parallel to the direction of sleeve extension; additionally conformable portion 70 extends across a part of body portion 64 from side 67 to a point short of center front 69. Similar conformable portions are provided on the back of the gown. A conformable portion 72 is provided adjacent wrist edge portion 74 as in the previous embodiment.

What is claimed is:

1. A disposable garment of flexible inelastic nonwoven material, composed of generally planar sections joined by seams,

selected portions of said material being micropleated by mechanical compression of said material to form a multiplicity of random discontinuous micropleats extending transversely to the direction of said compression to compact said material in said direction to form a conformable portion irreversibly sizeadjustable to a larger size along said direction,

whereby said garment is adapted to conform to a wearers form and size.

2. The garment of claim 1, said garment being a gown having a body portion and sleeve portions extending therefrom, and having at least one said conformable portion including portions adjacent the joining of a said sleeve portion to said body portion, said micropleats extending generally transversely to the direction of said sleeve portion extension, said compacting initially reducing the circumference of said gown body portion by at least about 5% of the uncompacted circumference thereof.

3. The garment of claim'l, said garment being a gown, and said planar sections including:

a top section including an upper body portion, and sleeve portions extending therefrom and including wrist edge portions,

and a lower section including front and back lower body portions and joined to said upper body portion by a seam,

said gown having at least one said conformable portion, including a part of said upper body portion, said lower section and a said sleeve portion,

said micropleats extending generally transversely to the direction of said sleeve portion extension, said compacting initially reducing the distance between said wrist edge portions by at least about 5% of the uncompacted distance.

4. The gown of claim 3, having further a said conformable portion adjacent each said wrist edge portion, said micropleats extending transversely to said wrist edge portion, said compacting reducing the circumference of said wrist edge portion by at least about 5% of the uncompacting circumference thereof.

5. The gown of claim 4 wherein said sleeve portion intermediate said wrist edge conformable portion and said upper body conformable portion is free of micropleats, and said lower section below said upper body conformable portion is free of micropleats.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,124,366 7/1938 De Lasarte 2114X 2,846,686 7/ 1958 Tames 2'Dig. 7 3,556,921 1/1971 Painter et al. 161132 FOREIGN PATENTS 248,891 2/1961 Australia 21 14 WERNER H. SCHROEDER, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 2-Dig 7 

